MTA rips down ads calling for $15 minimum wage

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is ripping down subway advertisements calling for a $15 minimum wage, saying they violate agency policy against “ads of a political nature.”

The six-figure ad purchase by union-affiliated Amalgamated Bank was approved in error by the MTA’s advertising contractor, Outfront Media, according to an MTA spokesman. The 1,260 banner and poster ads began running Sept. 21 in subway cars and Sept. 28 in stations. They were to remain up for four weeks, but will mostly be gone by Friday, the spokesman said.

The MTA’s action outraged Amalgamated CEO Keith Mestrich.

“This is America. We have a constitutional right to free speech,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday night. “We should be able to buy ads for any kind of political speech.”

But the MTA in late April adopted a policy allowing only “viewpoint-neutral” advertising on its property, citing a desire to “maintain a safe and welcoming environment” for its employees and customers, as well as to avoid spending resources to resolve disputes.

It may find itself in court over its decision late Tuesday, however. “We’re looking at all of our legal options at this point,” Mestrich said, noting that the ads “have been up for weeks without any controversy.” The ad also ran in the New York Times and is on display in Amalgamated's branches.

An irony of the MTA’s decision is that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who controls the transit authority, is himself campaigning for a $15-an-hour statewide minimum. “The governor is a great ally on the issue of minimum wage,” said the bank’s CEO.

Amalgamated was established in 1923 by the trade-union movement and is the largest majority-owned union bank in the U.S. “We’re a for-profit institution with a mission to fight for economic and social justice,” said Mestrich, who penned an op-ed in Crain’s this summer calling for other banks to pay their employees at least $15 an hour, as Amalgamated began doing in August. None has followed suit.

Having Manhattan-based Outfront Media, formerly CBS Outdoor, handle the MTA’s ads allows the transit agency to avoid posting controversial messaging without having internal discussions that would be subject to public-records requests, the New York Postreported in mid April.

The Post story, two weeks before the MTA changed its policy, concerned Outfront’s rejection of a racy ad by Brooklyn-based Dumbo Moving. It featured a scantily-clad woman with her bare legs wrapped around a shirtless man surrounded by Dumbo Moving boxes. “Always have protection,” the caption read.

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